JUAN PABLO MONTOYA, NO. 42 TARGET IMPALA met with media and discussed
winning the Indy 500 and Monaco, his expectations for Sunday's race, the
season outlook, and more.

WHAT IS YOUR OUTLOOK HEADING INTO SUNDAY'S DAYTONA 500?
"I think we've got a good car. You have to be smart. In the Shootout I
pushed (Greg) Biffle really hard and damaged the front of the car. I
went too hard. So yesterday you have to be like self conscious about
what you did and how far you went. Our main goal really was trying to
get to the 500 with the same car we practiced and qualified with. That
was our goal and we did it. We got a decent starting spot (row 4) and
it's such a long race that it doesn't really matter where you start. The
big this is that we've got a good car and that goes a long way."

WHAT STYLE OF RACING DO YOU EXPECT ON SUNDAY?
"I wouldn't be surprised that we will have more than one
green-white-checkered (laughter). Honestly. People are racing really
clean but you're pushing and you know, yesterday was only half a field.
And it was out of control. It was good, but it was out of control. I
think it's going to be interesting because you're going to have a lot
of the good cars up front because the way the tires wear and everything
at the end they're going to be a handful. But yeah, it makes it
interesting."

IS THAT BECAUSE OF THE RULES OR BECAUSE SOME DRIVERS ARE MAYBE GETTING
CRAZY?
"The rules are a little more relaxed, so you don't have to worry about
oh, you know, you never know how they are going to react when you push
people too much yourself. So that's better. And I think with the new
restrictor makes racing a lot better. You get more of a run. You always
get more of a chance, but more of a chance is more of a wreck."

YOU RESISTED IT AT FIRST, BUT HOW IS YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH BRIAN PATTIE
COMING ALONG?
"Oh, it's been great. I knew Brian would be a really cool guy and a
really smart guy. But when you're working with something you believe
what you've got is the best, or at least they gave you the best. And
when they change it, you don't like it. When I had Wingo, I knew I had a
really good crew chief, but they told me it was for the benefit of the
whole team to try to make sure the whole team worked better and I agreed
to it because I thought it was probably as good. And when that happened,
it disrupts everything. Consistency is a big thing here and making sure
people understand you. You don't have telemetry or anything and you
can't really show them that this is my problem. So they've got to really
rely on what you say and understand what you're saying. It works pretty
good."

CAN YOU TALK ABOUT DRIVING THROUGH TURNS 3 AND 4 AND THE DIFFERENCE
BETWEEN SINGLE CAR RUNS AND WHEN YOU'RE IN THE BIG PACKS?
"Well, the first 50 laps it is fine. Well, probably not 50; let's say
10 laps. It's like you can two wide easy. The guy in the middle, it's
a struggle. Yesterday I got dropped in the middle and just had to go
to the back. You know, it's a qualifying race and of course you want
to have a good finish, but if you don't you still have the same car.
So I was pretty cautious about that. When the tires get old and the
guy on the bottom most of the time starts getting tight, and when they
start getting tight they start running into the other people. That's the
problem. When you run high, then your problem is the wall. You start in
coming off the corner and get tight and you've got to get off the gas
and sometimes even hit the brakes and that's where the whole line stacks
up."

WITH SEVERAL YEARS OF DOING THIS RACE, HOW DO YOU PUT TOGETHER YOUR
AGGRESSIVE ATTITUDE TOWARDS DRIVING, HEY GET OUT OF THE WAY I'M GOING TO
THE FRONT AND THIS IS MORE LIKE A CHESS MATCH TYPE OF GAME. DO YOU LIKE
THAT?
"I think it's great, but it's not like hey, I'm going to the front. They
guy next to me is going, hey, I'm going to the front also. It's hard.
When everybody has fresh tires, it's really hard to make any good moves
unless you're willing to really risk the car. If you're willing to risk
the car and cause a big wreck, then you can make some moves and they
might pay off. At the same time, they might not. So you've got to be
smart about how you do it and who you do it with. When you do it with
guys who care about points and they're thinking about the Chase and
stuff, then it's a lot easier."

IN BOTH RACES YESTERDAY, GOING INTO TURNS 3 AND 4 IT SEEMED LIKE THE
TOP LINE REALLY GOT A GOOD PUSH GOING INTO THE CORNER, BUT IT KIND OF
STALLED AS YOU CAME OUT AND COMING THROUGH THE TRI-OVAL. ON THE LAST
LAP, IT LOOKED LIKE YOU LOOKED TO THE OUTSIDE OF TONY (STEWART)
"And I realized I've got to have this car next week; or on Sunday at
least."

IS IT THE FACT THAT THE TOP LINE IS JUST NOT GETTING ENOUGH OF A PUSH
WHEN YOU DUCKED OUT LIKE THAT OR DOES THE TOP LINE STALL?
"Well, I don't know. We were coming. I could have hit Tony in the
tri-oval but most likely I would have wrecked him into the No. 9 car and
probably ticked off a lot of people for no reason."

SO IF YOU FIND YOURSELF IN THAT SAME SITUATION AT THE END OF SUNDAY'S
RACE, DO YOU WANT TO BE ON THE BOTTOM INSTEAD OF THE TOP?
"Or, you just don't care. You only have to run another 100 yards, so
you'll probably make it even you're going the wrong way (laughter)."

HOW MUCH DOES THIS RACE REGISTER IN COLUMBIA? IF YOU WIN IT, WILL THE
PEOPLE BACK HOME REALIZE WHAT A BIG DEAL IT IS?
"Probably not. They didn't when I won Indy and they didn't when I won
Monaco and they probably wouldn't either. I don't know. I don't really
care (laughs). I don't do it for anybody else; I do this for myself.
If they appreciate what I do, great. If they don't, well, I'm having
a great time here (laughter). It's true! Do you think any of these
drivers; you know, we want to keep the sponsors proud, we want to keep
the owners happy and the fans who really care about it and the people
who came here and watched the race care about it, then it's good. But
if somebody doesn't want to pay attention, it's their miss, not mine. I
can't do anything about that."

YOU TALKED ABOUT THE GREEN-WHITE-CHECKER. WHAT'S YOUR FEELING ABOUT THE
POSSIBILITY OF THREE OF THEM?
"Well, if you have the fastest car it probably really sucks. Honestly,
if you led all day and you have a good car and you had the clear
advantage and you have two good re-starts and you mess it up in the last
one and you lose the race, you'd be really ticked. And if it happens,
you're going to hear some really annoyed drivers, but probably some
pretty happy fans."

WHAT IS YOUR OUTLOOK ON THE SEASON AFTER THE DAYTONA 500?
"Whatever happens here doesn't mean anything for the rest of the season.
This is a restrictor plate race. We do three (plate races) pre-Chase and
one in the Chase. It's still points it's still racing but it doesn't
really show the true performance of the cars. If you can cross the line
here at the end of the race with the car in one piece, it means you're
probably in the top ten; most likely scenario."

ARE YOU FOLLOWING U.S. F-1 AND THE RUMORS OF THAT AND THE SOUTH AMERICAN
DRIVER THEY'VE SIGNED? "No. Should I? What's going on? You tell me.
What's the rumor?"

WELL THE RUMOR IS THAT THEY'RE STRUGGLING
"It wouldn't surprise me if they're struggling. Any new team right now
would be struggling. Everybody is testing. I haven't heard any of the
new cars testing. I'll tell you the truth, I'm not really following it."

YOU WON MONACO AND YOU WON INDY. IF YOU WIN THE DAYTONA 500, WHERE WOULD
THAT RANK WITH THE OTHER ACCOMPLISHMENTS?
"Well, it would be as high as the other ones. It would be cool to win
them all. But right now, I don't think about it. I didn't think about it
when I won Indy or Monaco. Afterwards, you go, oh wow, I won this. But
you ask me today and you've got to take it like any other race. You've
got to make your pit stops and make sure you have a good balance, and
keep the car in one piece for when it counts."

IT SEEMS LIKE JAMIE MCMURRAY HAS STEPPED UP HIS GAME. CAN YOU TALK ABOUT
WORKING WITH HIM?
"Jamie is a great guy. He's a guy who really wants to run well. He
wants to prove to everybody he can get that job done and I think that's
interesting. When we get to the other tracks, I think there's going to
be a learning process between the crew chief and driver and there's
going to be good weeks and back weeks, but I think overall hopefully
the car runs better than they did most of last year. At the end of last
year, they had a good car and they were doing a really good job. But the
season was a struggle so hopefully they can hit the ground running."